Mike Jr. arrived into Unalakleet at 12:46pm after an 11hour 15 minute run over the Portage with 8 dogs.

Go Team Williams!

UPDATE- Who knows who is in the lead at this point- Tracker shows either one ahead at any given time!

In news at the Front, Jeff King scaled back his sled and is now battling Aliye Zirkle for the lead. The trail looks pretty hard with little snow and lots of glare ice. The wind is pretty strong and Teams are headed right into it.

The files showed up, but they wouldn’t play, but after a bit of magic, they are good to go! Thanks Isaiah and Courtney for these short clips- Nice Job! Also thanks to Marcus Ackerman, their teacher, for putting them to work for us!

At this hour Mike Jr. is into the McGrath Checkpoint. His time is going to be pretty close to other musher’s across the run in about 5 hours 30 minutes or so.

I’m expecting a break here and then probably on to Takotna and Ophir. With his 24 complete, he will begin to revert to a schedule that works well for his Team. It could be a 6/4 or something similar. The runs tonight are fairly long as he turns North for Ruby this evening with the Ophir to Cripple run the second longest of the race.

Speaking of LONG! There is talk of Sonny Lindner possibly heading all the way to Ruby for his 24 hour break. That would be a pretty long run, but the weather and trail are exceptional. Stay tuned- They are all keeping us guessing!

Congratulations to our Host Aaron Burmeister for winning the half way prize in Cripple! Go Aaron!!

Mike Williams Jr. is back on the Iditarod Trail. Mike and his Team left Nikolai this morning at 10:18 with 10 dogs in harness. He has completed his mandatory 24 hour layover as well as his differential time. Time is added to a musher’s layover based on the Team’s Start position. The last Team will have no differential, while the first teams will have time added so that all mushers times are equal after the layover.

Mike will be the only Kusko Trio Team out on the Trail today as Richie and Pete are taking their 24 today in Takotna. Have Fun Mike!!